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Causality
In a world much as our own, with a history very similair. Until it diverged, with one, minor at first, discovery, causing a ripple. Now, it is 1942, and the world is on the brink of disaster. Divergence one: 1203 AD, The Book of Merlin Where did our shared histories first go their own ways, you ask? 1203. A group of monks find a tome written by Merlin himself. Reading this work, they discover how to perform numerous feets known as 'magic'. The magic in the book itself held the knoledge of numerous healing spells and restorative magics. Using these newfound abilities, they formed the Order of the White Mage. Immediately hired by King John to provide healing to his armies (And royal families, of course). This tips the various battles during the time in Johns favor, as he can maintain his troops better than his enemies. Like a butterfly, such events caused a cascade, resulting in a very different England, and a greatly changed Europe. However, this is not the only area in which things have changed dramatically... Divergence two: The Lizardmen fall In a world in which Magic exists, multiple species will evolve sentience. This idea is present in many works of fantasy, from Tolkeins works, to the fascinating tales of David Eddings. However, the full ramifications of this phenomina are never fully explored. Fortunately, this rule applies to the altered earth that Causality belongs to as well. Well, fortunately for us, that is. The Lizardmen would be in a disagreement with that fact. Developing in the land we call the Americas, the Lizardmen would, in a nice, happy, romanticized version of a fantasy steampunk story, be a fantasy version of the Native Americans. This is not a happy steampunk story. The Lizardmen are not indians. And their fate is one of most primal horror. You see, in this world, the Aztec empire grew much faster than our version did. And, upon reaching their zenith, they began to hunt the Lizardmen, seeing them as vermin to be offered up before their dark gods. Desperate, the Lizarmen made a deal that they wouldn't be able to regret for long. Summoning a Dark Outsider, they made a deal. they would sacrifice a part of their souls, and offer up a specific amount of their young, in return for the Dark Magics needed to defend themselves against the Aztec Empires agression. However, Dark Magic always has a price. Normally, the soul acts as a buffer, preventing body and mind from being corrupted by darkness, at the cost of the soul itself growing black and twisted. However, due to the entire race sacrificing part of their soul, there was no such buffer. Sanity and Body were twisted. Using their newfound magics, they crushed the Aztecs, and spread like a disease. And, as in many tales, Dark Magic is addictive in this narrative. Relying more and more on it, the Lizardmen eventually degenerated from the proud shamanistic race they once were into a race of twisted, psychotic cannibals. And so, when Cristopher Columbus landed upon the dark shore of what would later be named America, he encountered not curious but friendly indians, he encountered vile, magic using monsters. He did not find a lush, green shore, but a decayed and dying one. Indeed, the only paralell was the discovery of corn and various other vegetables. As you can guess, the effects on the timeline were....less than pleasant. And, like radiation, or Communism, The energies of Dark Magic accumulate and build up. This tainted the land, and blurred the line between life and death. Those who perished would rise as a Draugr, and quest endlessly for flesh. And those whom the Draugrs killed would rise as a lesser form of undead, the Zombie. The end result was that Colonization of the Americas took much longer. Much, much longer.